fixed on some of the casual stripes
on my arm, and from that moment he became restless and impatient to be
gone. I tried some gentle arts to retain him, but in vain; so, after
paying both the landlady and me for pleasures he had neither tasted nor
asked, he took his leave.

"I showed him downstairs; and, just as he turned the corner of the next
land, a man came rushing violently by him; exchanged looks with him,
and came running up to me. He appeared in great agitation, and was
quite out of breath; and, taking my hand in his, we ran upstairs
together without speaking, and were instantly in the apartment I had
left, where a stoup of wine still stood untasted. 'Ah, this is
fortunate!' said my new spark, and helped himself. In the meanwhile, as
our apartment was a corner one, and looked both east and north, I ran
to the eastern casement to look after Drummond. Now, note me well: I
saw him going eastward in his tartans and bonnet, and the gilded hilt
of his claymore glittering in the moon; and, at the very same time, I
saw two men, the one in black, and the other likewise in tartans,
coming towards the steps from the opposite bank, by the foot of the
loch; and I saw Drummond and they eyeing each other as they passed. I
kept view of him till he vanished towards Leith Wynd, and by that time
the two strangers had come close up under our window. This is what I
wish you to pay particular attention to. I had only lost sight of
Drummond (who had given me his name and address) for the short space of
time that we took in running up one pair of short stairs; and during
that space he had halted a moment, for, when I got my eye on him again,
he had not crossed the mouth of the next entry, nor proceeded above ten
or twelve paces, and, at the same time, I saw the two men coming down
the bank on the opposite side of the loch, at about three hundred
paces' distance. Both he and they were distinctly in my view, and never
within speech of each other, until he vanished into one of the wynds
leading towards the bottom of the High Street, at which precise time
the two strangers came below my window; so that it was quite dear he
neither could be one of them nor have any communication with them.

"Yet, mark me again; for, of all things I have ever seen, this was the
most singular. When I looked down at the two strangers, one of them was
extremely like Drummond. So like was he that there was not one item in
dress, form, feature, nor voice, by whi